'App cabs is an industry, treat them like one'

'App cabs is an industry, treat them like one'KOLKATA:The state government should extend a single-window clearance policy to applicants of new app cabs instead of reinforcing licence raj of the pre-Liberalization era, feel former bureaucrats.

"For nearly two decades now, the Bengal government is trying to roll out the red carpet to industries. But in case of app-cab operators, who have quietly introduced a convenient service for citizens and generated employment for thousands, there is an attempt to smother it with red tape due to a few stray incidents," said former Kolkata Police additional commissioner (traffic) Sandhi Mukherjee.

Having dealt with transport issues since 1989, first as deputy commissioner (traffic) and then joint commissioner (traffic), Mukherjee says the introduction of app-based cab service has been a boon to citizens in Kolkata."When an odd incident of an app cab driver misbehaving is reported, we seem to forgot about the harassment by drivers of yellow cabs and the perpetual refusal problem," he said.

Acknowledging the legitimate concern over background checks on drivers, the former cop said it needed to be addressed by the police instead of creating hurdles in a service that has enormously benefited citizens and revolutionized transportation in Kolkata.

"Why is police not helping in the driver verification process against a fee as it does for passport? Since this is about public safety and will benefit the citizen, the onus is on police to do so. In any case, it is not possible for a private business to carry out such checks," said Mukherjee.

Former central revenue and finance secretary Sunil Mitra was skeptical about the transport department's insistence on installation of CCTV camera in app-based cabs. "Although it is technologically possible to have live streaming of video from a car, it will place very high demand on bandwidth and storage capacity . In addition, there are concerns like in-car lighting, cost component, privacy issues and video drops. It will also be impossible to monitor so many live cameras. While the concern of the government for citizens' safety is commendable, they need to work together with service providers to provide simple yet effective solutions. In-car surveillance and video streaming may not be the best or only answer," he reasoned.

Mukherjee went a step ahead and felt the government needed to first install the systems in its own fleet of buses before asking private service providers to do so."Also, why discriminate between yellow cabs and app-based taxis? What is the point of asking for something absurd? This appears to be clearly designed to inconvenience the operators," he added